Kinkuni (Angola)

“Take a look at a short video of a planning visit to Kinkuni in North East Angola. This is where the church wants to rebuild a seminary twice destroyed during the war as a seminary plus a skill training centre. Jurgens Hendriks”

Currently NetACT is involved in assisting IERA, the Reformed Church of Angola, in developing training facilities for their theological students. The Kinkuni seminary was built in 1940 but destroyed twice, in 1961 by the Portuguese, rebuilt in 1978 and again destroyed during the war in 1987. Most of IERA’s theological training is done in Luanda under difficult circumstances.

The Kinkuni project aims to empower the Angolan church in leadership and skills development. The development is aimed at serving the whole North Eastern region of Angola and the neighbouring countries which is the home of the Bakongo, Kimbundo, Tchokwe and others language groups. The seminary will be ecumenical in nature especially for the Bakongo.

The project involves housing for 60 students and six lecturers, guest housing, a clinic, classrooms, workshops, offices, chapel, kitchen-cafeteria and gardens / agricultural facilities. The cost is estimated to be around US$5.6m (R56 million). However, by developing the project in phases and the buildings in modules by using rammed earth technology and local labour on a volunteer basis, the costs can be greatly reduced. The IERA church will provide labour on a volunteer basis. Each presbytery (a number of congregations forming an organizational hub) will be responsible for the construction of a module. They will receive the required training on site and build a specified module. Each volunteer construction group will thus receive training, build a module and, on completion, be awarded certificates of com-petency. On returning to their respective areas they will be able to use these skills to build their own houses, churches and to bid on building projects required in their communities. The project therefore addresses the chronic problem of unemployment, shortage of skills, sustainable community development and economic stimulation.

Interested in learning more about this project or supporting it? Please download the following brochure:Kinkuni

(What is remarkable about the photo is that these men were the first lecturers after the war. They just started lecturing without training and shared what they had to share. They built the classroom [behind them] and were very proud about the zinc roof. NetACT helped most of them to being trained over time in Mozambique.)